In 2009, there were 295,700 births registered in Australia, resulting from 291,200 confinements. During the early 1900s, the number of births registered in Australia each year remained under 140,000, with a decline occurring in the early 1930s during the Great Depression. The number of births then increased rapidly, reaching a peak of 276,400 in 1971, falling sharply during the remainder of the 1970s, then increasing from the early 1980s to reach another peak in 1992 of 264,200 births.

Following 1992, the annual number of birth registrations decreased, falling to 246,400 in 2001. The number of births then increased to a new record of 296,600 in 2008, the highest number of births registered within a calendar year in Australia. In 2009, the number of births registered declined slightly to 295,700 births.

2.4 Births registered - 1909 to 2009

Sex ratio

Just over half (51%) of all births registered in 2009 were male babies, resulting in a sex ratio at birth of 105.8 male births per 100 female births. The sex ratio for all births registered in Australia generally fluctuates at around 105.5 male births per 100 female births.